The United Nations Development Fund for Women reports that women are still the poorest of the world's poor, representing 70% of the 1.3 billion people who live in absolute poverty. They also estimate that nearly 900 million women in the world have incomes of less than $1 a day. In the United States alone, women are about 50 percent more likely to be poor than men. The feminization of poverty in America has steadily increased since the 1950's. Researchers have investigated the reasons for this increase, citing everything from teenage pregnancy to the rise in "deadbeat dads." Over the last thirty-five years there have been several trends in our society that have contributed to the feminization of poverty.

In 1978, Diana Pearce published a paper citing that poverty in America was becoming more and more "feminized." She cited that almost two-thirds of the poor over the age of 16 were women. Pearce also claimed that even though there were more women entering the labor force between 1950 and the mid-1970's, women's economic status had declined. She argued that the blame for this feminization of poverty belonged to the government because of their lack of support for divorced and

single women. She argued, "for many the price of that independence has been their pauperization and dependence on welfare" (McLanahan 1). Further examination of the issue has shown that various changes in the family have contributed to the feminization of poverty.

"The broad support for disciplinary welfare reform is rooted in the view that mothers' poverty flows from moral failing. Both Democrats and Republicans emphasize the wrongs of mothers--their "unwillingness to work," their failure to marry (or stay married), their irresponsible sexuality and childbearing. Accordingly, the legislative debate about welfare was a contest among moral prescriptions, rather than a conflict between perspectives either on the role and responsibilities of government or on the rights and responsibilities of women."

These women, whether by law or predicament, are forced to choose between caring for their children and making low-wages at a job with zero benefits. Gwendolyn Mink, a professor of political science at UC-Santa Cruz and a longtime campaigner for welfare reform, believes that welfare mothers have been unfairly targeted. She charges that the basic elements of the new welfare reform policy lower the situations of poor single mothers. Mink explains:

Another contribution to the rise in female-headed households has been the increase in divorces. Sarah McLanahan, a researcher at Princeton University, noted that in 1950, "most people remained married until they or their spouses died, but today over half of all couples end their marriages voluntarily. The divorce rate - the number of divorces each year per 1,000 married women - rose steadily during the first half of the twentieth century and increased dramatically after 1960. Over half of all marriages contracted in the mid-1980's were projected to end in divorce." After the marriages are ended the custody of the children almost always goes to the mother. Now the mother becomes the single provider in her family, facing a job that pays far less than the job her male counterparts have, and on top of that her needs are greater because she has custody of their children. Karen Holden and Pamela Smock noted the problems women face after their marriages have ended:

The study goes on to claim that for every dollar a man earns women earn 75 cents. It also says that "child-bearing decisions still profoundly affect women's career path, and the glass ceiling, while cracked in places, remains firmly in place" (CEA 10). Women are continuously faced with discrimination in the work force, but they continually overcome these obstacles.

Women now have 60 months to get off welfare and to find a job, with even stricter time limits in some states. In the year 2002, these women will be forced off the welfare roles regardless of their situation that means a loss not o

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Approximate Word count = 1904
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)